Who Pays for Server & Cloud Costs? (AWS / Domain / Email / DB)
A practical breakdown of who bears server, cloud (AWS), domain, email, and database infrastructure costs during outsourced software development, including estimated amounts.
- •Infrastructure costs (server/domain/SSL) are typically borne by the client and are separate from development fees.
- •Expect roughly 50,000–300,000 KRW/month for an MVP and 300,000–2,000,000+ KRW/month for production.
- •All accounts must be registered under the client's name to avoid problems when switching vendors.
Infrastructure Cost Items and Who Pays
Outsourcing quotes usually cover "development fees" only; infrastructure costs required for operations are separate. Here is a summary of the costs and who bears them.
| Item | Monthly Cost (MVP) | Monthly Cost (Production) | Paid By |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Server (AWS/GCP) | 30,000–150,000 KRW | 200,000–1,000,000+ KRW | Client |
| Domain (.com/.kr) | 10,000–30,000 KRW/year | 10,000–30,000 KRW/year | Client |
| SSL Certificate | Free–100,000 KRW/year | Free–100,000 KRW/year | Client |
| DB Server (RDS, etc.) | 30,000–100,000 KRW | 100,000–500,000+ KRW | Client |
| Email Sending (SES/SendGrid) | Free–30,000 KRW | 30,000–200,000 KRW | Client |
| SMS Sending | 10–20 KRW per message | 10–20 KRW per message | Client |
| CDN (CloudFront, etc.) | 10,000–50,000 KRW | 50,000–300,000 KRW | Client |
| Monitoring (Datadog, etc.) | Free | 50,000–300,000 KRW | Client |
| PG Payment Fees | 2.5–3.5% per transaction | 2.5–3.5% per transaction | Client |
Key point: All infrastructure costs are borne by the client. Some vendors offer hosting on their own servers, but this creates migration costs when switching vendors, so client-owned accounts are strongly recommended.
AWS Cost Scenarios by Scale
Below are monthly cost examples based on AWS, broken down by service scale.
Small Scale (under 100 daily visitors)
EC2 t3.small: ~30,000 KRW/month
RDS db.t3.micro: ~30,000 KRW/month
S3 (file storage): ~10,000 KRW/month
Monthly total: approx. 70,000–100,000 KRW
Medium Scale (1,000 daily visitors)
EC2 t3.medium x 2: ~120,000 KRW/month
RDS db.t3.small: ~60,000 KRW/month
S3 + CloudFront: ~50,000 KRW/month
ElastiCache (Redis): ~50,000 KRW/month
Monthly total: approx. 280,000–400,000 KRW
Large Scale (10,000+ daily visitors)
EC2 Auto Scaling: ~500,000+ KRW/month
RDS db.r6g.large: ~300,000 KRW/month
S3 + CloudFront: ~150,000 KRW/month
ElastiCache + SQS: ~150,000 KRW/month
Monthly total: approx. 1,100,000–2,000,000+ KRW
Cost-saving tips: Take advantage of the AWS Free Tier (12 months), Reserved Instances (up to 40% discount with a 1-year commitment), and Spot Instances (up to 90% discount).
Account Ownership Management Checklist
Infrastructure accounts must be created under the client's name. If they are under the vendor's name, a vendor switch can turn into a serious incident.
Cautionary tale: There have been real cases where a server was built on the vendor CEO's personal AWS account, and after a dispute, server access was blocked, causing a complete service outage.
Cost-Related Agreements with the Vendor
When signing an outsourcing contract, make sure the following infrastructure items are agreed upon.
Initial Setup Costs
Server setup, database provisioning, and CI/CD pipeline configuration are generally included in the development fee. Check whether the quote has a "deployment/infrastructure" line item.
Obligation to Disclose Operating Costs
The vendor should provide estimated monthly operating costs before the project starts. Get a clear statement like "Server costs will be approximately X per month" upfront.
Infrastructure Management Scope
Confirm whether the maintenance contract includes infrastructure management (server monitoring, security patches, scaling). If it does not, you will need separate DevOps personnel.
Cost Optimization
The vendor should recommend appropriate server specs, but some vendors recommend excessive (expensive) configurations. At the MVP stage, start with the minimum specs and scale up based on traffic — this is the rational approach.
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